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Pressure mounts on Carr over China rights abuses

John Garnaut Beijing

PRESSURE is mounting on Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr to take an open and forthright approach to legal abuses in China.

This follows revelations that another successful Chinese Australian entrepreneur has been quietly jailed.

Jerome Cohen, recognised as the world's foremost expert on protecting the rights of detainees in China, said the Australian government might discourage public scrutiny in such cases to prevent allegations about its own shortcomings - even though media exposure generally could help detainees.

''Governments, as you know, fear publicity, which often brings criticism for alleged ineptitude and ineffectiveness,'' said Professor Cohen, who advised blind activist Chen Guangcheng in securing his escape to the United States in May.

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Fairfax Media reported on Saturday that Du Zuying, an Australian cardiac surgeon whose lawyers and family say has been stripped of a two-thirds share of a $300 million business, had spent nearly two years in jail without public knowledge.

Dr Du had requested on October 27 last year that media be notified and that his case be made public to place scrutiny on Chinese officials who have allegedly taken bribes to keep him in jail. But Australian consular officials have urged his family to be ''extremely cautious'' in approaching the media and issued media ''guidelines'' that outlined risks but no benefits.

On Saturday, Dr Du's son, Tommy, urged Senator Carr to raise his father's case with senior Chinese officials after the Foreign Minister rejected a similar request in March.

Next month Senator Carr will get an opportunity, with Politburo member Liu Yandong planning a visit to Australia, according to Chinese officials.

On Friday, after inquiries by Fairfax Media, Australia's ambassador to Beijing, Frances Adamson, for the first time wrote to a senior Chinese official to press the jailed doctor's case.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop, who leads a Coalition delegation to China this weekend, said she wanted a briefing from the Department of Foreign Affairs and an explanation from Senator Carr of his lack of personal interest.

''They can explain why they have discouraged Dr Du from raising his predicament with the media when Senator Carr has gone out of his way to publicise his role in the predicament of other Australians in trouble overseas,'' she told Fairfax.

John Kamm, who has been negotiating and advocating for the rights of political prisoners in China for 20 years, said officials inside the Chinese system often privately acknowledged the protection that media exposure brought.

''Your readers might be surprised to know that sympathetic guards often suggest to the prisoner that the media be alerted to his or her plight,'' said Mr Kamm, who runs the Duihua human rights organisation.

He said Chinese-born foreign nationals were ''obviously'' more vulnerable than other foreign passport holders in China.

The number of ethnic Chinese Australians falling foul of China's often murky legal system is rising with economic interdependency between the two nations.

Figures provided to Fairfax Media last week show that 38 Australian citizens were held in Chinese jails this year on offences ranging from fraud to murder. In 2007 the figure was 18.

Professor Cohen said prisoners in China knew that public scrutiny encouraged officials to stick more closely to the rules.

''I have never met a released detainee who opposed publicity,'' he said.

''Occasionally it makes life tougher for a detainee, but much more often it adds to the pressure for release and at least helps secure prosecution for a lesser offence and punishment and/or better treatment in prison,'' he said.

''It can sometimes prevent torture or limit its use.''

Tommy Du said he had decided to ''expose this outrageous and illegal detainment'' of his father in part to warn others and to pressure the Chinese authorities ''to follow the laws of their land''.

The Australian government's apparent inability to prevent a series of prosecutions of ethnic Chinese Australians has attracted the attention of prominent Hong Kong legislator Leung Kwok-Hung.

Mr Leung, who sits on Hong Kong's Legislative Council and is known for his outspoken and unconventional style, has raised the case of Australian economist Paul Kong, who was detained in Shanghai in 2006 for 37 days, and then had his passport unlawfully withheld for more than a year.

Mr Kong, who returned to Australia in 2008 and lives in Sydney, said his detention by Shanghai police, accompanied with repeated physical threats, had been designed to intimidate him into handing over his lifelong economic research into China's social security modelling, which he developed while at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Mr Kong is seeking an apology and compensation from Shanghai authorities.

''I'm not telling [the Australian government] to interfere with China's laws, I'm asking it to stand up for its citizens and demand the Chinese government strictly follow its own laws,'' he said.

Mr Leung said the Australian government was hiding behind limitations of international conventions and its consular treaty with China to justify inaction, even when China was clearly contravening its own laws and when allegations of corruption and bribery were common.

''If the consular agreement signed between the Australian and Chinese governments really means it can't protect the basic human rights of ethnic Chinese Australians … then it is an absurd betrayal of human rights in Australia,'' he said.

The Australian consul-general in Beijing, Ric Lavey, said Mr Leung's claims were unsubstantiated and Mr Kong was ''afforded consular assistance over an extended period''.

''As you are aware, an Australian citizen, or any other person in a foreign country, is subject to the laws and regulations of that country,'' he said.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said: ''Mr Kong and his family received considerable consular assistance over an extended period from consular officers in Canberra and Shanghai.

''Consular officers in Shanghai raised his case with Chinese authorities on a number of occasions.''